A Great Cholent Recipe:Not Fast Food But Good Food

My cholent recipe is a mix of Ashkenazy and Sephardic traditions - just
like me. Using this recipe you can probably make enough for 8 people or a bit more.

But what is cholent? Cholent is a traditional Jewish dish of slowly baked meat and vegetables, prepared on a Friday and cooked overnight. It is the traditional Jewish Sabbath daytime dish.

The origins of the dish is the Jewish Sabbath itself. During the Sabbath, which lasts from Friday nightfall to Saturday nightfall, Jews are forbidden, amongst other things, from lighting fire (and thus cooking). Cholent was thus born as a solution to the Jewish problem of being able to eat warm food over the Sabbath - the cooking of the food would be started before the Sabbath, and this would continue on a low temperature overnight until being eaten on Saturday during the day.

Ingredients:

3 Onions – chopped or sliced

1 kg (2 lb) beef, steak or brisket

8 medium potatoes pealed and cut into quarters

6 large cloves of garlic, minced

8 eggs

1 cup pearl barley

300 gr (10 oz) white beans – soaked overnight

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/3 cup vegetable or olive oil

Instructions:

Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed large pot and fry the onions
and garlic a bit until they start to look golden. Remove the pot from
the heat.

In the following order add the beans, potatoes, beef, barley and eggs. Cover the ingredients with water.

Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and reduce the heat to low-medium and simmer for about 2 hours. Skim the foam from the top.

Add the salt and pepper and cover the pot tightly. Place the pot in the oven and cook overnight on 100C (220F).

Enjoy. Preferably with friends and family. And preferably on a somewhat cold Saturday.

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